OCS Inventory vs Snow Atlas

OCS Inventory scans, inventories, and categorizes hardware and software across IT environments. Agents installed on machines send inventory information to an OCS server, where administrators review results in a web console, inspect detected network hardware, and create deployment packages. Agents can download packages over HTTP or HTTPS and launch them remotely, with deployment status and statistics available. For devices without agents, IP discovery and SNMP scans can identify equipment such as copiers, switches, routers, and computers.

The server provides a REST API and names ITSM-NG, GLPI, CMDBuild, and iTop as compatible tools. Plugins can add VMware vCenter inventory or details about drivers and user-installed applications. CVE Search cross-references fleet inventory with the CVE-Mitre register to identify machines exposed to software vulnerabilities. OCS Inventory is open source, with cloud and on-premise offers. OCS Free costs €0 per month and includes unlimited agents, the complete software, community support, and plugin access. OCS Cloud costs €250 per month and includes SaaS hosting, updates, and unlimited support. Adapting the free solution to an organization's infrastructure can require advanced technical skills.

Snow Atlas is Flexera’s cloud platform for IT asset management teams seeking a defensible software license position and lower software spend. It matches entitlements with applied licenses to calculate an effective license position, with verified data for Oracle Database, Java, E-Business Suite, and Middleware. Agents, APIs, and connectors consolidate hardware and software assets, while AI-based importing can ingest contracts and records such as invoices, purchase orders, and quotes. Its application catalog normalizes and enriches more than 800,000 applications from over 110,000 manufacturers. Usage metering can surface software use across an estate, including shadow IT, SaaS, and unsanctioned applications. Hardware management adds lifecycle and warranty visibility, plus mappings to users and applications. Read and write REST APIs support automation and bulk updates. Snow Atlas runs on Microsoft Azure, with customer-selectable regions listed in Amsterdam, London, Victoria, and Virginia. Flexera lists SOC 2 Type 2, ISO/ISE 27001, and Cloud Security Alliance STAR certifications. It is paid, with pricing available on request and no free plan listed.